Mark Foster is a partner in Morrison & Foerster’s San Francisco office. He focuses on representing public companies, and their directors and officers in securities fraud class actions, shareholder derivative lawsuits, and special investigations. Mr. Foster routinely defends clients against investor lawsuits that allege violations of federal and state securities laws, breach of fiduciary duty, and insider trading. Mr. Foster has won dispositive pre-trial motions, prevailed on the merits at trial, and preserved victories on appeal.
Mr. Foster’s representative engagements include the following:
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The successful defense of a publicly-traded technology company and its former chairman against allegations of civil securities fraud in a six-week jury trial that resulted in a complete defense verdict;
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The successful defense of Yahoo! and certain of its officers in a securities class action that the court dismissed with prejudice in Brodsky v. Yahoo!, Inc., 630 F. Supp. 2d 1104 (N.D. Cal. 2009);
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The successful defense of directors and officers of one of the world’s largest contact lens manufacturers in a securities class action;
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The successful defense of a global pharmaceutical company in securities litigation that was dismissed with prejudice;
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The successful representation of a consumer-products conglomerate and its directors and officers in defense of a shareholder’s derivative lawsuit;
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The ongoing defense of a semiconductor manufacturer and certain of its executives in a securities fraud class action;
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The representation of the audit committee for a publicly-traded company in connection with stock option granting processes and practices;
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The representation of clients in the defense of shareholder lawsuits challenging mergers and tender offers; and
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The representation of clients in connection with investigations by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Mr. Foster graduated first in his class from Santa Clara University School of Law, Order of the Coif. While in law school, he was a Dean’s Fellow with a full-merit scholarship, served as senior production editor of the Santa Clara Computer High Technology Law Journal, and earned American Jurisprudence Awards in seven subjects.